One thing I love about New York are all the tall buildings. When I was in college a guest lecturer asked why I wanted to become an architect. I boldly stated in front of my whole class that I wanted to become an architect so I could change the Dutch skyline. Well, I haven't had much influence on the Dutch cityscape just yet (I'm still young, who knows!), so I still have to look elsewhere for a good skyline. We don't have a lot of skyscrapers here in the NL (and the ones we do have, I don't like), so when I'm in New York, you can be damn sure I'm looking up wherever I go.

So for our first day in the city, we decided to just walk around in different neighbourhoods. The best part of visiting a city you've been to before is that you can just wander around without feeling the need to do all the touristy places first. Anyway. Started off in the financial district.

125 Barclay St

I love how in New York all these buildings are huge and seem so massive, but when you look closely, you can see a lot of the architects actually paid a lot of attention to detail. I like it when I see some unexpected patterns in the brickwork, or some other decorations that brighten up an otherwise *boring* building. Or the little patriotic stars beneath the eagle here below.

Federal Office Building

39 Broadway

Old meets new: Trinity Church with 1WTC on the background

Ahh, all these architectural styles from different times blend together so well.

The last time we were in New York we managed to see A LOT, but not the charging bull. So we decided to walk here. We weren't the only ones with this brilliant idea.

Had Shake Shack for lunch. Ohhh Shake Shack, how I've missed you. By the way, this was the first of many, many (really. too many.) hamburgers. And I just have to say it.. although these fries were good, the crinkle cut fries were better :(

Then we decided to go to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as we thought we should venture out of Manhattan at least once and the walking tour in our Lonely Planet seemed interesting enough. The vibe in Williamsburg is noticably different from Manhattan, quieter and yeah.. a bit hipster-y, as you'd expect from Williamsburg?... I don't want to generalize, and I'm sure other parts of Brooklyn aren't as hipster-y, but most of the men walking around here looked kinda the same. And I really mean it when I say the same. All of them sporting the hipster beard - sort of bushy, but you can tell it's actually neatly trimmed that way and not some manly-man-havent-shaved-for-a-year-beard. "Vintage" half framed sunglasses. A denim or lumberjack shirt. Pierced/tunneled ears. Beanie. Black skinny jeans. Really nice shoes. Herschel bag. And a dog. One of those *in* ones. And really, there's nothing wrong with dressing that way, it was just striking to me how similar all the men looked, hehe!

Pretty neoclassical building by George B. Post. Former Williamsburgh Savings Bank

Aaand... there are of course lots of stores to feed your inner hipster. Hehe okay, I'm one to talk. I actually love these kinds of stores :') Honestly, the only thing preventing me from being a full on effortless chic hipster is... lack of money.